The rise in the number of GPs is a step in the right direction, says the Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) GP committee.\r\n\r\nHowever, the 1,503 extra GPs announced today by the Government is actually 851 full-time equivalents (FTE), the committee said.\r\n\r\nDr Rosie Shire, DAUK GP committee member, said that making ARRS funding available for GPs had played some part in the increase.\r\n\r\nBut she said limiting the ARRS funding to newly-qualified GPs was creating issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Shire said: \u201cThe increase in GP employment levels is very welcome, and a step in the right direction.\r\n\r\n\u201cMaking ARRS funding available for GPs has been a helpful part of that.\r\n\r\n\u201cHowever, it is still restricted by the government-imposed red tape, which limits the ARRS GP role to newly qualified practitioners.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis is of concern as Primary Care Network (PCN) ARRS roles are based across multiple practices.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis can lead to isolation, a lack of direct support, and difficulties with continuity and follow ups.\r\n\r\n\u201cAll of these are a vital part of being a GP, and even more important for newly-qualified GPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd it also doesn’t help with jobs for GPs who qualified more than two years ago.\r\n\r\n\u201cUltimately, the 1,500 figure is actually only 851 FTE GPs, and still leaves us more than 1,000 FTE GPs shorter than in 2015.\u201d\r\n\r\nDAUK GP committee members were speaking after the Government announced an extra 1,503 GPs have been recruited since 1 October<\/a>.\r\n\r\nHealth secretary Wes Streeting said: \u201cBy cutting red tape and investing more in our NHS, we have put an extra 1,503 GPs into general practice to deliver more appointments.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe extra investment and reforms we have made will allow patients to book appointments more easily, to help bring back the family doctor and end the 8am scramble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is only because of the necessary decisions we took to increase employer National Insurance that we are able to recruit more GPs and deliver better services for patients.\u201d\r\n\r\nHowever, Dr Shire said the rise in National Insurance for general practice was taking money away.\r\n\r\nShe said: \u201cA large portion of the extra money the Government announced is going back to the Treasury and away from practices and their patients in National Insurance hikes.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Ellen Welch, DAUK vice chair and a GP in Cumbria, said it was welcome news that GP numbers were up.\r\n\r\nShe added: \u201cIt\u2019s something we can build on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut there are still lots of GPs who are out of work or short of work, which is a scandal at a time when we\u2019re crying out for GPs.\r\n\r\n\u201cDAUK continues to call for practices to be able to use the ARRS funding in the best way for them, without the current red tape that prevents them from employing experienced GPs.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP spokesperson, said: \u201cIt\u2019s good that GP numbers are up, but there is still some way to go to reach the targets of required GP numbers, which were projected 10 years ago.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re still 7,000 short of that number and only making ARRS funding open to GPs up to two years post their CCT is not ideal, to say the least.\r\n\r\n\u201cAlthough numbers of fully employed GPs are up, there has been a similar fall in the partly employed ad-hoc locum numbers which means overall access to GPs for patients hasn\u2019t increased significantly.\u201d\r\n\r\nPlease support our work by contributing to our crowd funder<\/a> or by becoming a member<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The rise in the number of GPs is a step in the right direction, says the Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) GP committee. However, the 1,503…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59,58],"tags":[61,23,63],"class_list":["post-1360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","category-the-nhs","tag-general-practice","tag-gp-crisis","tag-gps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}National Insurance increase<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Out of work GPs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n